TORONTO— Ontario’s minister for the anti-racism directorate says he “didn’t mean to offend” anyone when he talked about wearing a bulletproof vest while on a police ride-along in Toronto, but he’s stopping short of apologizing or retracting his statement.

On Wednesday community safety and correctional services minister, Michael Tibollo, came under fire for how he responded to a question from the NDP.

“Will you be making changes to allow even more carding to take place on Ontario streets or will you work to stamp out carding,” NDP legislator Kevin Yarde asked during question period.

Tibollo’s response was to talk about a ride-along he did with the Toronto police.

“I want to reassure everyone that the focus of this government is to ensure that safety is paramount in all communities. Personally, I went out to Jane and Finch, put on a bulletproof vest and spent 7 o’clock to 1 o’clock in the morning visiting sites that had previously had bullet-ridden people killed in the middle of the night,” he said.

Similarly in question period on Thursday morning NDP Leader Andrea Horwath asked Tibollo if he would apologize. He did not and instead accused the official opposition of continuing to “insult and undermine our men and women in uniform.”

Tibollo said it wasn’t “insensitive” to talk about wearing a bulletproof vest in Toronto’s Jane and Finch neighbourhood in response to a question about carding.

“If I had to do it over again obviously I’ve learned that the way you say things should perhaps be more careful because I honestly didn’t think I was being offensive,” he said. “I didn’t mean to offend them the point is I’d like to work with them.”

Horwath called on Tibollo to get better educated on the files he’s responsible for.

“The fact that this minister doesn’t understand, doesn’t seem to know that these comments would be offensive is even more shocking,” she said. “Our job is to call racism when we see it and call it out strongly.”